New Zealand local residents agaist animal pests

Mike Nixon
M.Nixon@auckland.ac.nz

Lone Kauri Forest Restoration Group are landowners and volunteers, aiming to undertake pest control in an area of about 200 hectares, partly privately owned, partly adjacent parkland, targeting possums, rats, mustelids, feral cats and exotic birds.

We want to work to provide optimum conditions for regeneration of native flora and fauna in the Karekare area In Waitakere City, Auckland, New Zealand. Following on from the success of Operation Forestsave, which has resulted in a very visible lowering of the possum population, we are keen to see this situation maintained and improved upon.

For the past year we have been maintaining a grid of 110 bait stations using Talon supplied by the Auckland Regional Council (ARC), we have also been undertaking a rat control programme using rat traps - these rats are to be freeze dried to be used as bait for mustelid trapping.

In the future we hope to expand to cover more of the local area and to involve more local residents in striving to reduce exotic pests and maintain the indigenous biodiversity. There is an adjoining area being looked after by a similar group in the La Trobe road, so totally, this will be 400 hectares of largely pest free forest. This will be a substantial area for native wildlife to breed unhindered by the usual predation. Eventually we hope to prove that the area has a low enough predator count to be an ideal area for the re-introduction of some of the species that used to be common in the Waitakere Ranges such as the North Island robin, kokako, bellbirds and even kiwis.

There is considerable enthusiasm among residents in Lone Kauri Road for this project. Many of these people have come to live in the Waitakere Ranges because of a love for the area and are keen to do what they can to help with regeneration of the forest. There is the strong community spirit found in small communities in rural New Zealand. There is also a growing understanding nationwide of the need to restrict the exotic arrivals for the protection and survival of indigenous species.

We believe this project is meeting some of the key objectives identified in the West Coast Plan (Goal 1, Target 1) 'There is a continual reduction in pests and weeds in the forests, gardens, cliffs, parks, roadsides and streams'. It will build on the good work done in the Forestsave Operation.

From p. 80 Draft Regional Parks Management Plan, we identified a paragraph describing how 'attempts have been made to re-introduce bellbirds, wekas, red-crowned parakeets and the North Island brown kiwi into the ranges (MacMillan, 1990). All of these releases were unsuccessful, largely because there was no predator control'. We have come a long way since 1990, and our group has learnt a lot from the model of the 'mainland island', and we are hoping to achieve similar success in a populated area. We realise there are problems we will encounter, such as domestic cats and dogs but on the other hand we are resident in the area and can keep a close eye on progress. We have a vested interest in making the project work and believe it may be a model for other communities living in or on the fringes of any park to really make a difference to the health of that park.